Police Explorers used in drug sting at Barlow High School (Easton CT)

Connecticut Post ^ | 06/29/2005 04:24:11 AM | DANIEL TEPFER dtepfer@ctpost.com

[solitas]

(excerpt from full article)

Easton Police Chief John Solomon used two teenage Police Explorers at Joel Barlow High School to uncover drug dealing activity there, and concealed this from their parents, newly released Superior Court documents reveal.

But the covert operation ended when two police officers secretly recorded the chief talking about it and notified the teens' parents, the documents state.

"No one should know. If you are an informant, you wouldn't want anyone to know. I didn't do anything wrong," Solomon said Tuesday.

But Louis Salute, executive of the Yankee Council of the Boy Scouts, which oversees the Explorer Post, said it was definitely wrong.

"Young people are there to learn about police work. They are not supposed to be put in a situation of danger and they are not to be used this way," he said.

[solitas]

NOT good - not good at ALL. Parents: talk to your kids if they're in the program.

[solitas]

ping

[Wolfie]

There was a case a couple of years ago where the cops busted a minor for possession and then turned him into an undercover informant without his parents knowledge. I don't think they ever found all the body parts.

[Cboldt]

After his January 5, 1998 arrest for methamphetamine possession, seventeen-year-old Chad MacDonald from Brea, California agreed to become a police informant. Two months later he was murdered ... Cindy MacDonald, Chad's mother, claims that her son was forced into becoming an informant out of fear of a harsh sentence. Though Cindy MacDonald signed a police waiver allowing Chad to act as an informant, her brother, Chris Saroli, feels the police took advantage of her.

http://www.ndsn.org/marapr98/enforce3.html

Not sure if this is the same one you have in mind.

Drug and alcohol prohibitions have enough profit potential that they create a violence-prone environment. Other criminal vice does as well.

[solitas]

FYI: Easton & Redding are adjacent towns. Barlow School located in Redding and used/supported/run by both towns. Article does not mention if the students were minors.

[Broker]

Joel Barlow High School's Mission Statement :
We, the community of Joel Barlow High School, believe in a rigorous, dynamic education that respects the diversity of student abilities and interests. Committed to an open and active exchange of ideas, we promote values, knowledge, and skills that foster personal integrity, intellectual curiosity, individual well-being, and civic responsibility.

Guiding Principle
"Education is not the filling of a pail,

---

but the lighting of a fire."

---

William Butler Yeats



The measure of an education, that which will sustain learners beyond Joel Barlow High School, is the vital exchange between educators and students. We hold to the tenets of that exchange: the stimulation of the intellect, the cultivation of inquiry, the fostering of thoughtful behavior, the enhancement of a sense of wonder, the quest for truth. The essential nature of the classroom is more than the transfer of content. It is an invitation for all students to develop the promise of their inherent talents. The informing metaphor of our school community is learning-as-discovery with the expectation that, by using their minds as well, students will have opportunities to appreciate the triumphs, the frustrations, and the incongruities of the human spirit.

Graduates of Joel Barlow High School will:

Learn the importance of the arts in expressing the human condition.

Demonstrate an understanding of the basic knowledge of history, civics and government, geography and economics and apply this knowledge to real-world circumstances.

Analyze a wide range of texts, write with precision and clarity, and
utilize language to communicate their ideas to others.

Acquire and demonstrate the conceptual understanding of numerical, algebraic, geometrical and statistical skills necessary to formulate, analyze and solve quantitative problems, to facilitate the inquiry and the exploration of real-world phenomena, and to support continued development of mathematical thinking.

Acquire and demonstrate an understanding of basic scientific concepts, processes, and methods of inquiry, apply them to the real world, and acquire and demonstrate a knowledge of, appreciation for, and respect for the environment.

Demonstrate acquisition of a code of ethics and assume responsibility for personal actions and community involvement

Have the necessary knowledge and skills to make healthy lifestyle choices in the promotion of personal and community wellness.

Acquire and demonstrate an understanding of the appropriate use of information resources and technology.

Demonstrate the development of an educational plan and the skills necessary to achieve vocational and personal success.

Be effective communicators who understand the application of an interrelationship among listening, speaking and viewing skills.

[Broker]

The real problem at JBHS is their deeply flawed construction project. Don't know the details but it is expensive and convoluted.

[Broker]

The real problem at JBHS is their deeply flawed construction project. Don't know the details but it is expensive and convoluted.

[solitas]

Huh! Nothing about "clandestine snitching" (i.e. 'narking)?

IMO: his using kids for the detail aside, NOT notifying parents or officials should be supremely punishable. I have no comment on the other two who 'bugged' the locker room - the whistleblowing becomes a grey area since the information was obtained thru the commission of a felony (which it wouldn't have been if they had been ordered by superiors, or police commissioners, to do it)

[AppyPappy]

. I don't think they ever found all the body parts.

Ridiculous. You are insinuating that drug dealers are violent criminals and responsible for the minor's death.

[Broker]

IMO: All Students should be encouraged to snitch on dope dealers.

[Know your rights]

Ridiculous. You are insinuating that drug dealers are violent criminals

Of course they are ... just as alcohol dealers during Prohibition were violent criminals, whereas now that alcohol is legal it is sold by law-abiding businessmen.

[Know your rights]

Easton Police Chief John Solomon used two teenage Police Explorers at Joel Barlow High School to uncover drug dealing activity there, and concealed this from their parents

No price is too high to pay to combat the scourge of drugs. </sarcasm>

[dellman25]

Look at this article ... http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14860522&BRD=1344&PAG=461&dept_id=433794&rfi=6

This may shed some light onto the subject.

[solitas]

Yeah; it's the 'town rag': one WOULD expect them to take the chief doughnut-muncher's side against the whistleblower. No matter how the evidence was obtained, it shows solomon DID give directions for the parents NOT to be notified. And that's wrong, plain wrong.

Hypothetical: if something HAD happened to the kids as a result of their actions (or yet may happen now that they're known) and nobody had EVER known that they were narking for solomon, would he have come-clean and told everybody everything? Yeah, sure - no civil suit THERE...